`LET MY PEOPLE GO': AUTHOR REMEMBERS DAYS OF CIVIL UNREST IN CAIRO

"The civil rights movement did not destroy the population ... Cairo was already a community in rapid population decline long before the happenings of 1967."

-- Preston Ewing Jr.

CAIRO, Ill. -- "Effective immediately, all gatherings of people of two or more individuals is prohibited."

Cairo Mayor Lee P. Stenzel issued that edict on Sept. 11, 1969.

It further stated that "no person shall take part in or become a part of a parade or engage in any picketing within the corporate limits of City of Cairo."

The mayor's order came after more than two years of civil unrest in this small Southern Illinois community of about 5,000, located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

"The civil rights movement came to Cairo late," says Preston Ewing Jr., an educational consultant with the National Center for the Educational Rights of Children.

Ewing, who presided over the Cairo Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) during a period of civil right unrest in his hometown, chronicles the turbulent happenings between 1967 and 1973 in a new book published by Southern Illinois University Press.

""Let My People Go: Cairo, Illinois, 1967-1973," uses 110 photographs and numerous eye-witness narrations to tell the seven-year story of turbulence in the historic city during one of the final civil rights protests of the 1960s.

Ewing, a self-taught photo journalist, shot more than 3,000 photographs during the seven-year period of protests, KKK cross-burnings and more than 150 nights of gunfire between whites and blacks and police and blacks.

"You just don't expect to see pictures like these from Cairo," Ewing said during a recent interview.

Today's Cairo has a population of 4,846 and is about 55 percent black. This is about one-fourth the city's population during the boom times of the 1920s.

"But people can't say that the civil rights movement destroyed the population," said Ewing. "Cairo was already a community in rapid population decline long before the happenings of 1967."

By 1960, the city's population had dwindled to less than 10,000.

"Cairo was a big river town during its peak," said Ewing. "The decline started in the in the 1940s and 1950s."

Racial unrest was evident in Cairo long before things really heated up.

During the early 1960s, under the banner of the NAACP, black residents were successful in ending segregation in schools, restaurants and movie theaters, although a couple of incidents at one Cairo restaurant led to some racial unrest.

Then, on the night of July 15, 1967, Robert Hunt, a young black soldier home on leave, was found hanged in Cairo's police station.

Authorities said that Hunt hanged himself with his T-shirt, but relatives viewing the body said the soldier had been beaten, "seriously beaten."

The incident moved the black community to such anger that it organized the biggest political protest movement Cairo has ever seen.

Through civil rights marches, lawsuits, picketing and economic boycotts, black citizens were successful in making significant changes in their lives and the community.

The racial strife lingered, continuing until 1973.

"There was an absence of leadership in Cairo before and during this period of time," said Ewing. "There were no blacks involved in city government, and it took a lawsuit against the city to eventually correct this situation."

The seven-year movement did not put Cairo where it is today, said Ewing, But it did have some impact on stores in the downtown area.

"Cairo has to accept the fact that it is a small town," said Ewing. "Despite economic problems, I think Cairo is a better place to live today than it was in the 1960s.

"On the level of human dignity, there has been an improvement," said Ewing. "Blacks hold jobs they once could not get. They participate more now in decision-making bodies. Blacks are now part of city government."

Ewing complimented Mayor James Wilson, who is in his second term as mayor.

"Mayor Wilson is good for the city," said Ewing.

"I'm happy this book has been published," said Ewing. "The history of an era in the city is now packaged under one cover, making it easy for people to develop an understanding of what happened."

In the future, Ewing hopes to create a Cairo Museum where he will display his photographs and other documents on the region's African-American history.

The book became a reality thanks to Jan Peterson Roddy, an associate professor in the Department of Cinema and Photography at SIU-Carbondale, who convinced Ewing to put his photos in a book.

"Ewing had an amazing store of negatives and documents on the civil rights period,' said Roddy, who edited the book.

Roddy and Ewing called in SIU sociology professor Kathryn B. Ward to help. Ward guided SIU students who collected oral histories of a half-dozen blacks active in the Cairo civil rights struggles. These recollections are sprinkled throughout the book.

Of all the photos in the book, Ewing has a favorite, a picture of a woman carrying a sign that simply reads "Dignity."

Ewing will be at Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Cape Girardeau Dec. 7 for a book signing. He will be at the Cairo Public Library Saturday to sign copies of the book, which sells for $29.95 with a paper cover and $49.95 cloth cover.